Keyhole Cichlids Changing Color Rapidly

[Corleone]

I bought two keyholes a few weeks ago, and today I moved them into the community tank.

I read before buying them that they shift colors with mood sometimes, but maybe I misunderstood - I thought it was a gradual process like I see in some of my fish already (black skirt tetras turning silver when spooked, for example). They changed occasionally in the quarantine tank, but slowly over the course of the day they might show a new shading and return to normal.

Now, they're like chameleons. If I leave for five minutes, they look like different fish. During the course of about two minutes watching one of them, he lost his normal spot, developed a horizontal black stripe down his side, turned a mottled brown, and settled back to his usual color plus a faint horizontal stripe. When he encountered a curious cory, he suddenly turned dark brown all over and then faded back to normal.


They ate, and had started exploring the tank more by the time I turned the lights out, so I'm pretty sure they're going to be ok. I guess I just wanted to post about how impressed I am with them. It's the first time I've seen them around here. The manager of the LFS was surprised when I asked about them - he said he hasn't stocked them since December, and I'm the first person in over a year to buy any there. I would have thought they'd be more popular.

 

[brett174]

I've had a pair of keyholes for a few months now and I've never seen them change colours! I dont know if thats a good thing or not.

They're a great fish, i dont know why they're not more popular than they are.

 

[Corleone]

From what I read before getting them, read they get the larger brown/black markings primarily when breeding, but sometimes become slightly territorial. There's a post in the species index of somebody whose keyholes showed those markings while eating, too. The pictures there also cover most of the color patterns I've seen in mine, I'm just shocked how fast they change sometimes.

Mine usually stay "normal" while they're swimming around. They tend to change the most noticeably and quickly when another fish gets close, especially the corys, which always try to investigate new fish. Harmless, but the keyholes don't like it anyway.